conflict

The lovely autumn sun disappeared at lunchtime, and the rain has washed out my chances of an outdoor Blip.

The UK government's announcement today about having found £50m slushing around in our public coffers to spend on glorifying the anniversary of the start of WWI in 2014, reminded me about this book I'm supposed to be reading.

Having been to BiH (twice), including Sarajevo & Mostar and a wee jaunt through Republika Srpska (complete with minefields by the roadside), I find it compulsive reading. Mind you, the book is so intense and the narrative so repugnant in some sections, that occasionally I have to put it aside for a while.

At the impressionable age of 13 I was taken around the WWI battlefield site at Verdun. Not something I'll ever forget. The French fought and died there, not the Brits, so it's not as well known here as the Somme.

Just for the record, I've been to Croatia twice as well, and to Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia. Not all in the one day...